Franco Rocchetta Explained

Franco Rocchetta (born Venice, 12 April 1947) is an Italian politician, entrepreneur, philologist and history populariser, who is usually described as the "father" of present-day Venetian nationalism and independentism.[1] [2] [3] [4]

Early life and political career

Since his university years, Rocchetta has been a Venetist, a Europeanist, and a passionate of historical, archeological and linguistic studies, and, as such, he was active in Radical and green movements.[5] Before coming of age, he was investigated for separatist writings on walls and for his solidarity with South Tyrolean activists.[6] [7]

During the 1960s he was a member of the Italian Republican Party and the Italian Communist Party, which he left in order to join Lotta Continua in 1969.[6] [7]

In 1978 Rocchetta founded the "Venetian Philological Society" (of which he was elected president).[8]

Liga Veneta and Lega Nord

In 1980 Rocchetta, who had been a candidate in the list led by Valdostan Union in the 1979 European Parliament election,[9] was instrumental in the foundation of Liga Veneta,[10] [11] [12] whose goal was to reorganise an independent Venetian Republic within a federal Europe.[13] Rocchetta was thus Liga Veneta's long-time national president and practical leader, having seized party's control over Achille Tramarin in 1984 and having been elected to the Regional Council of Veneto in 1985.

Having been a founding member of Lega Nord, along with Umberto Bossi, Franco Castellazzi, Giorgio Conca, Gipo Farassino, Riccardo Fragassi, Marilena Marin, Bruno Ravera, Francesco Speroni and Carla Uccelli,[14] in 1989, Rocchetta led Liga Veneta into Lega Nord, which became a federation from a confederation, in 1991. During the party's founding federal congress, he was elected federal president, a role he would keep until 1994. In the 1992 general election he was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies and, after the 1994 general election, he joined Berlusconi I Cabinet as undersecretary of Foreign Affairs.[15]

In July 1994, after years of juxtaposition with federal secretary Bossi[16] on several institutional, organisational, ethnic, ethic and economic issues,[17] [18] Rocchetta left the party before the end of a congress in which his wife and protégé Marilena Marin was replaced by Fabrizio Comencini as national secretary.[19] [20] After his exit from Lega Nord, he unsuccessfully launched Liga Nathion Veneta.[21] [22] He later joined the Federalists and Liberal Democrats and National Alliance, prior to leaving politics.[23]

Post-Lega Nord activity

Having left the Italian Parliament following the 1996 general election, Rocchetta, while continuing to be an active spokesman for Venetian nationalism, focused on pacifism and antimilitarism. In particular, in 1999 he went to Belgrade for what he described as a "mission of peace", along with some left-wing pacifists, notably including Luca Casarini, Gianfranco Bettin and Vitaliano Della Sala.[6] With his "Center for International Studies" dedicated to Paolo Sarpi, Rocchetta organised several initiatives with representatives of minorities, notably including those with Ibrahim Rugova in favour of a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Kosovo.[24] In 1999 Rocchetta was instrumental in the awarding to Rugova of the honorary citizenship of Venice by then-mayor Massimo Cacciari.[25]

Between the 1990s and the 2000s Rocchetta was honorary consul of the Republic of Macedonia in Venice.[26]

In 2013 Rocchetta returned to active politics after virtually 20 years of absence from the political scene as a member of Plebiscite 2013, a cross-party committee which organised the 2014 referendum on Veneto's independence,[27] [28] which saw the participation of 63.2% of eligible voters and the support of 89.1% among them.[29] [30] Later on Rocchetta, along with Andrea Arman and Giovanni Dalla-Valle, distanced from the Venetist organisation over disagreements with the "Delegation of Ten".[31] [32]

In the 2014 centre-left primary election for selecting the candidate for President of Veneto, Rocchetta voted for Simonetta Rubinato, who lost to Alessandra Moretti.[33]

2014 arrest for alleged terrorism

On 2 April 2014, ten days after the 2014 Venetian independence referendum was held, Rocchetta was arrested, along with a group of Venetian separatists (including leading members of the Venetian Most Serene Government and the European Federalist Free Entrepreneurs), for suspected crimes including criminal association for terrorism and subversion of the democratic order.[34] On 18 April Rocchetta, who had declared his innocence and pacifism since the beginning,[35] [36] was released from prison as a tribunal in Brescia did not uphold the accusations.[37] [38]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Saldatura Lega-indipendentisti Ma il Pd: "Le elezioni unico test". Alessandro Zuin. Corriere del Veneto. 19 March 2014.
  2. Web site: Famiglia Cristiana n.40 del 11-10-98 - "Lotta di potere tra due mercenari" - Parla Franco Rocchetta. 31 March 2017.
  3. Web site: LEGA: ROCCHETTA, BOSSI FEUDATARIO DI NUOVO CONTRO IL VENETO. 16 September 1998.
  4. Web site: la Repubblica/tre_uomini_in_bici: Ecco Velingrad paradiso del macho. www.repubblica.it. Jan 26, 2021.
  5. [Alessandro Casellato]
  6. Web site: L'indipendentista veneto Rocchetta:'Non sono terrorista. Ecco la mia storia:Vengo dal Pc e Lotta Continua'. Emiliano Fittipaldi. 2 April 2014. l'Espresso.
  7. Web site: Rocchetta, Chiavegato e i due ex Serenissimi: gli arrestati. www.ilgazzettino.it. 2 April 2014 . Jan 26, 2021.
  8. Web site: Ecco perché un veneto non guiderà mai la Lega Nord. 15 April 2012.
  9. Web site: Il fondatore della Liga folgorato dal referendum: "Mi ha ridato l'energia". Alessandro Zuin. Corriere del Veneto. 3 April 2014.
  10. [Giovanni Fracasso]
  11. Giannandrea Mencini, "Il Fronte per la difesa di Venezia e della Laguna e le denunce di Indro Montanelli, con un Saggio Introduttivo di Gherardo Ortalli ed un'Appendice di Paolo Rosa Salva", Venice 2005 : "...vi era poi un forte senso dell'appartenenza e della collettività fra i soci, a tal punto che non vi erano portavoci o responsabili. «Vorremmo, per abitudine di cronisti» continua Radius [Pietro Radius, "I crociati della Laguna", in Corriere d'Informazione, November the 19th and the 20th of 1970] «fare nomi e descrivere persone : il padre, il figlio, il nipote, l'amico, la ragazza in abito rosso, la giovane straniera. Ma essi ci hanno pregato di non farlo. Preferiamo che la gente parli solo del Fronte. I nomi non contano»..."
  12. [Centro Studi Internazionali Paolo Sarpi]
  13. [Marc Lazar]
  14. Web site: Raixe Venete, el jornale dei Veneti - RaixeVenete.net, el sito Veneto - in lingua veneta (Dialetto veneto) . 2013-08-11 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20131004235719/http://www.raixevenete.net/documenti/doc47.asp . 2013-10-04 .
  15. Web site: Governo Italiano - I governi italiani . 2014-03-24 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140324141732/http://governo.it/Governo/Governi/berlusconi1.html . 2014-03-24 .
  16. Enrico Pucci, Il federalismo è un bluff. Lega serva di Roma, Bossi al guinzaglio di Silvio, La Tribuna di Treviso, the 7th of February 2011; vide : bossi/guinzaglio/tribunatreviso/cronaca/2011
  17. [Margarita Gómez-Reino Cachafeiro]
  18. Damian Tambini, Two interviews with Bossi and Rocchetta, Telos, Number 98-99, Winter 1993-Spring 1994
  19. [Osvaldo Migotto]
  20. [Marilena Marin and Franco Rocchetta]
  21. Francesco Jori, Dalla Łiga alla Lega. Storia, movimenti, protagonisti, Marsilio, Venice 2009, pp. 90-91
  22. Web site: Regional Council of Veneto – Electoral Archive. Jan 26, 2021.
  23. Web site: La Camera dei Deputati. La Camera dei. Deputati. 31 March 2017.
  24. Web site: Ecco chi è il padre della Liga Veneta. Jan 26, 2021.
  25. Web site: KOSOVO: RUGOVA CITTADINO ONORARIO DI VENEZIA. 10 May 1999.
  26. Book: La versione di Tosi. 9788831733625. Lorenzetto. Stefano. 6 June 2012. Marsilio .
  27. Web site: Franco Rocchetta testimonial di Plebiscito2013.eu: "La Repubblica Veneta del XXI secolo". 29 July 2013. 31 March 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20161020142502/http://plebiscito2013.eu/franco-rocchetta-testimonial-di-plebiscito2013-eu-la-repubblica-veneta-del-xxi-secolo/. 20 October 2016. dead.
  28. Web site: Il Veneto urla "indipendenza". C'è il quorum. C'è il sì - L'intraprendente. L'intraprendente.
  29. Web site: REFERENDUM DI INDIPENDENZA DEL VENETO: I RISULTATI. Repubblica Veneta, federale, indipendente, libera e sovrana.
  30. Web site: Veneto Libero, Indipendente (nella Nato in Europa e con l'Euro.... Il Problema è lo STATO ITALIANO) - Rischio Calcolato. Rischio Calcolato. 2014-03-24. https://archive.today/20140322124151/http://www.rischiocalcolato.it/2014/03/veneto-libero-indipendente-nato-in-europa-leuro-problema-italiano.html. 2014-03-22. dead.
  31. Web site: MARETTA TOTALE IN PLEBISCITO.EU. ROCCHETTA E ALTRI VOGLIONO CHIAREZZA. MiglioVerde. 11 September 2014 .
  32. http://www.miglioverde.eu/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/LETTERA_DI_ROCCHETTA_ARMAN_DELLAVALLE.pdf
  33. Corriere del Veneto, 2 December 2014, p. 4.
  34. Web site: Indipendentisti, blitz all'alba: 24 arresti Sequestrato 'tanko', in manette Rocchetta. R. Pol.. Corriere del Veneto. 2 April 2014.
  35. Web site: Rocchetta: sono innocente e pacifista. Corriere del Veneto. 5 April 2014.
  36. Web site: Rocchetta: Io innocente e pacifista. Tribuna di Treviso.
  37. Web site: Scarcerati Rocchetta e Chiavegato Il riesame: cade l'accusa di terrorismo. Andrea Priante. Corriere del Veneto. 18 April 2014.
  38. Web site: La Nuova di Venezia. 2014-04-29. https://web.archive.org/web/20140429192056/http://nuovavenezia.gelocal.it/2014/04/24/news/l-accusa-non-regge-secessionisti-a-casa-liberi-o-ai-domiciliari-1.9102292. 2014-04-29. dead.

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